Monday, November 26, 2012

Review: Shiro Cosmetics Halloween 2012 Collection

Back in October, I picked up some samples along with the miniature jars of the Halloween collection from Shiro. At first I was lured in by the lip gloss called "This is Halloween" and was described as having a flavour of chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. I decided to spring for a few other things because the colours looked quite pigmented and I finally had a good reason to purchase since The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my favourite movies.

I got the package before Halloween but didn't get around to actually testing everything out. The packaging was quite lovely as it has an adorable Halloween theme -- the ribbon matched the candy that was sent in the package. (Also featured is one of the Halloween pails put out by McDonald's this year which I now use for nail polish).
The makeup itself was quite nice. (Sorry for the cluster image, but I couldn't help but take the photo on top of a Halloween themed game). I was a bit sad to not get the Halloween stickers that come with the full sized jars but they are aptly named after the characters they take after.

Let's focus on the Halloween 2012 collection, which are the four jars along the bottom and the tube of lip gloss. I will be following up shortly with the swatches from the samples that I ordered. Shiro offered four different options in order to get the series (ranging from full sized jars with a mini gloss to mini jars with a mini gloss). I opted for the large gloss with the mini jars since I'm a huge fan of glosses.

The eyeshadows in the collection are as follows (all description colours are listed s per the Shiro Cosmetics website):

From left to right without primer: Ragdoll, Oogie Boogie,
Pumpkin King, and Finkelstein.

For the swatches of the eyeshadow I did a set without any primers and then another set with the Urban Decay Primer Potion. As you'll note from the image on the left, Ragdoll was barely visible (if at all) without a primer. The other colours surprised me by coming in a bit strong with just one application and no primer.

The second image was on top of the primer was interesting. Ragdoll came in and was lovely. Oogie Boogie and Finkelstein kind of seemed a bit worn down and didn't come in as striking as they did without the primer in the first place. That was an interesting difference.

From left to right with primer: Ragdoll, Oogie Boogie,
Pumpkin King, and Finkelstein.

Pumpkin King came in nice and dark which I liked a lot. Overall I couldn't wait to see them all in one look. Sadly since my hair was terrible, I won't dare show you how that entire look came out. I ended up finding a decent picture which was strangely the same shot I sent one of my friends as I was testing it out. You'll see it below.

I can't attest to the lasting power of these eyeshadows just yet but below is a quick look I threw together.

The four colours are quite complementary even if they all don't quite show up on me. The noticeable difference would be Pumpkin King that came in as more of a darkened copper rather than black (which to be fair, blackened copper is how it's advertised -- it was just a tiny bit disappointing that while it came up as black on my arms, it was dark brown on my face). Mix copper with shades of rust and two lighter colours that tread on being greenish (on a yellow undertone skin, no less)? I think the interesting thing is that they come off as being a bit nude on me which funny enough, a nude palette is unable to do.

This is Halloween Lip Gloss

Either way, I'm very content with the look since it seems simple and light. The final piece would be the lip gloss which does in fact smell like a chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. The lip gloss came out a bit brighter than I had anticipated but it provides great coverage and it pops. The lip gloss is a "medium shimmery red-orange" but on me it's a bit more orange which is absolutely okay for a Halloween lip gloss. There was a weird taste which I'm not sure was attributed to the lip gloss itself or my makeup remover so that might be something to keep in mind.

Product:Shiro Cosmetics Halloween 2012 Collection (Mini Eyeshadows and Full Size Lip Gloss)Price: $21.00 (price varies based on the option you choose)Would Recommend? Yes!Takeaway: The eyeshadows are lovely and demure; they are easy to blend with one another and are buildable. Even if you aren't convinced about the eyeshadows, the lip gloss is mostly definitely worth it as it's a unique scent and colour. Very reminiscent of Halloween.